Unexpected Gifts from God... piano, vacuum

DIGITAL PIANO
For months (years?? I don't know Glenn is the craigslist guy) we have been looking at digital pianos. Since we move so often getting a normal piano doesn't make sense but we'd like the kids to learn how to play and they do make decent digital ones that are much more portable.  I asked a man from the flute choir that works at a piano shop for advice as to what to look for and he said that we should look for weighted keys and ear plug things with the option to record. We have seen many on CL over the time that we've been looking and have inquired about a few and even checked some out at Guitar Center but have never made the jump to purchase one.  A couple of weeks ago we were invited, after church, over to a friend's house for smores. While there we were shown some changing around that they were doing and were shown a piano that they just decided that day that they didn't want there anymore but couldn't decide if they were going to sell it, give it away, or put it up in the attic. They told us that we could borrow for now/ buy or possibly just have at the end of our time here. Not all the keys work because there had been a drink or two spilled on it but it sure has been fun to play around with a piano in our own home again (even if the random B plays loud enough to wake the dead ;). Thanks Tim and Sally for the use of this piano!

VACUUM
When moving from Syracuse we had no idea what our apartment would look like or what the flooring was like. We owned a canister vacuum that someone had left behind in an apartment that we lived in but it didn't do that great of a job on hardwoods so we doubted that it would do a good job on carpet if that was what we were moving into so we curbed it as we were moving from Syracuse. We've had hardwoods for the last 5ish years so there wasn't really a need for a good vacuum. Since moving here we have kept our eyes out for vacuums at yard sales and on CL and at stores and online but there are too many options out there and a corn broom and a dust pan does a decent job. We really would prefer to never live in a carpeted home again after these 10 months so we were having a hard time deciding how good of a vacuum to get (decision making, as you may or may not have noticed, is not a strong point for us). Anyway, a couple of weeks ago some friends were coming from Watertown to go on a field trip at the Windmill Farm. Afterwards they came over to our house to play and have lunch. As they were leaving they said, "Wait, we have a gift for you" and they brought out of the back of their vehicle a vacuum cleaner and gave me the gift receipt from Sam's. I was shocked and very thankful. A corn broom does work well but it sure takes a lot of time (I discovered after using the vacuum that a corn broom doesn't work quite as well as I had thought). Thanks John and Michele for your generous gift!


NOTE: I started this blog a  couple of weeks ago but stopped when Google gave me an error message telling me that I had used up my 1gb of photo space that I was allowed for free for my blogs. Since I haven't decided whether to go back and shrink all my photos and re-insert them (anybody want a job?? That is going to take forever!) or just pay google for more space there are no pictures for this post and you will just have to use your imagination or click on links that I put of things that look like them, though I am not 100% certain that any of the links are exactly correct.

Books, Magazines, Q-tips, and Oreos

As I was unloading our bags after our quick trip to Rochester on Tuesday I decided to take a picture of some material blessings we got while we were there. I haven't been keeping this blog up as much as I should. God blesses us so often and I just wanted to stop and give thanks to Him.

Pictured above are:

* Missionary Biographies - missionary biographies have been our read alouds of choice lately and when I saw that my friend Christina was getting rid of some in her "virtual yardsale" before moving I asked if I could have them. We are very excited to learn about these heroes of the faith in the months to come! Thanks Christina!!

* Q-tips - these are kind of silly. Before going to sleep at their house we were chatting with Dave and Hannah and Glenn somehow mentioned that we needed to buy some more q-tips because we were just about out. Hannah jumped up and ran upstairs and quickly came back with this big pack. I guess she had bought a big pack of them and they are not going to need them in the few weeks they have left before they move. Yay! I don't have to go shopping to buy them. Thanks Hannah!!

* Oreos - These were left behind at the party and were sent home with us - yummy chocolate and creme goodness - Thanks Karen (and whoever left them behind!)

* Clubhouse Magazines - my friend Karen had a stack of these magazines that her kids had gotten in the mail over the years. My kids are loving them! They read them the whole way home and ever since we've gotten home it seems that at least one, if not all, of my kids are reading them. Thanks Karen!!

Free Physical Education and Bonus Breakfast Sandwiches

One thing that I have really appreciated living in Syracuse has been the Neighborhood Youth Rec Program at Syracuse University which we have done last year and this year. I signed up initially because I had heard that it was a free gymnastics class and we could always use extra PE time. The first fall the girls all did gymnastics and Caleb did basketball. In the spring everyone did gymnastics. This past fall they started offering more classes and you could do 3 different sessions each Saturday morning that the program runs. The classes include: soccer, basketball, gymnastics, zumba, and yoga. We have given them each a try and it is fun because the parents can also participate (except in the gymnastics part).

Last week was the first session of the spring session and while we were there we were each given free breakfast sandwiches. It's fun to get some exercise on Saturday mornings and free food was a nice bonus (especially since we usually don't get breakfast in before it starts at 9:30 since Saturday is normally sleep in day.) This week we don't have NYRP but I decided to blog about it anyway. Looking forward to going back next week :)

Free Books

Books. They are my downfall. I love to read. I love books. So far we have packed 10 boxes. All books. There is probably at least another 10 on our shelves still that I should have packed this weekend but that is another story.

The reason for this blog is another thing that I am thankful for and how God has provided for us is through amazon.com's free books on Kindle. We are slowly trying to go towards kindle books that we currently read on our ipod/ iphone. We have been able to replace a few of our books (especially classics) because they are available for free on Kindle. There are a few classics that we've kept because I really do like reading actual books better than reading on that little screen but it is amazing how many books you can carry around with you that take no space at all.

One great thing about amazon is that they offer books temporarily for free. I was able to get some great books for free because they were free temporarily like Margin, Calm My Anxious Heart, Coffee Shop Conversations, Sheet Music and many others. (None of these books are free right now but have been in the past and may be again in the future. I occasionally check the free best sellers list to see what is free now.)

What prompted this is that right now Organized Simplicity is available for free temporarily. I follow Tsh's Simple Mom blog and I have borrowed this book from the library but was not able to keep it long because other library patrons had requested it. I have been wanting this book but have not wanted to add another book about simplifying (seems ironic to buy a book about getting rid of stuff). So thankful to be able to get it for free on Kindle!

Thanks God for free books that take up no space. You are so good to me!

Moving to Lowville (Lord willing)

When I posted about Glenn's "free" medical care I noticed that the last post I posted was announcing that we were moving to Montour Falls and that God had provided housing and a scholarship. Well, that is no longer true as I blogged about on over on Maas Update. Instead we are, Lord willing, moving to Lowville. The hospital there is willing to cover housing and the scholarship as well at the last moment for which we are very grateful. We aren't exactly sure what housing or anything is going to look like there but we are excited to see what God has in store. We went to check out the area last week and were given some helpful information. Looking forward to seeing what God is going to do!

"Free" Medical Care

Glenn has been pretty sick. He's been battling a cold for a while and his cough and sore throat just kept getting worse. Yesterday as I took him to school he was thinking out loud and said "Oh, but I don't have my co-pay." He had a bit of free time scheduled today (I think today may have been part study day for him) and I told him maybe he could get an appointment with his doctor for sometime today. Instead he left clinic early yesterday and went to student health. He was diagnosed with strep throat and given a prescription for penicillin which was charged to student health. Yes, we pay for student health through Glenn's school bill but, since we didn't have to pay for the visit or the medicine, it felt like Glenn got free medical care. He hasn't really been sick too much before this but we realized we might should have taken advantage of this service since we've been paying for it. Here's to hoping that none of the rest of us get strep!

Thanks God that we didn't have to pay out of our pocket for Glenn's sick visit or his medicine. You always provide for us!

Montour Falls Wants Us

We went out to dinner at Phoebe's on Thursday night (free yummy food - yay!) while a friend watched our kids and we learned more about the RMED program and found out.... Montour Falls wants us for RMED. They want us enough to provide housing (We were told: "It may be a tent but it will fit as many Maases as there are going." to which Glenn responded "There are only 6 of us." Which elicited laughter from the other 4 students and one student's wife at the table.) AND a scholarship! After visiting there a few weeks ago we were told that the hospital was making budget cuts or something like that and, most likely, if we went there we would not be getting housing or the scholarship. We prayed about it and decided that the time and experience there would be beneficial and that, if we were not going to get financial help to go there from the hospital, we would trust God to provide some other way for us. He has proved Himself faithful to us over and over in our lives and we know that He has never left us without a place to sleep or food to eat so we were trusting Him to do it again. We know that it is a gift from Him that we are getting the housing and scholarship and are very grateful! So, Lord willing, we will be moving to Montour Falls at the end of March/ beginning of April!

Refund Check

Today I was surprised by a gift from God that we got in the mail. We got a refund check from Excellus BlueCross/ Blue Shield for $103.49 for Glenn's health insurance. "The refund is a result of medical cost inflation that was lower than we expected for calendar year 2010.... Since actual costs were lower than anticipated, we are returning a portion of your premium to you."

Thanks God!

Fresh Veggies

This week we have had one of the kids' friends come over for a couple of days while her mom went back to teaching at LeMoyne. They live in our neighborhood but have a garden at one of her husband's co-workers' home. She brought me a bag of little cherry tomatoes earlier in the week and today her husband went to the garden and she brought me 3 bags of produce: an ear of corn, a bunch of basil (that smells wonderful!), some carrots, potatoes and big and small tomatoes. Yum! I am looking forward to eating all of this yumminess.

Last week when we went to Waterloo we also got a bag of summer squash, zucchini and cucumbers from Aunt Amy and a bunch of tomatoes and some peppers from Grandma and Grandpa's garden but I didn't take a picture. We have enjoyed them though in spaghetti, lasagna, and chili as well as just eating them fresh. Yum! I love this time of the year!!

Thanks God for fresh veggies that are so yummy!

Free Lunch

While we were going to swim lessons back in July I was talking to a lady who brings her daycare kids to swim lessons and she told me about the free lunch program at the school just around the corner from our house. I had seen signs for it but had never looked into it. She told me that she always takes her daycare kids and that they feed anyone under 18 with no income restrictions and that I should check it out so we did. We took a walk to the school around the corner for lunch for the almost two weeks after swim lessons and before we left on our train trip. I am not sure if it is a New York program or what but it was a blessing. The kids thought that eating a school lunch was fun. They were pretty healthy as well.

Thanks God for free lunches :)

Free Phones

Glenn's phone died at the beginning of  August. He's been getting by with our old LG but half of the time he needs to put it on speaker phone to hear/ be heard. (Could be because the kids used it as a play phone for 3-4 years.)

Anyway, I put out a plea on facebook to see if anyone had a verizon phone that they didn't need anymore and a fellow homeschool mom had a couple. I met up with her today and got the phones and chargers from her. (Thanks Cheryl!!) She only asked that we get rid of all the personal information on them. The only reason that she hadn't donated them before now is that she didn't know how to/ didn't want to take the time to get all of their personal information off of them. I am very thankful. This will give us time to make a decision on what we are going to do about cell phones.

Thanks God for providing phones for us!

GIfted Tickets

Glenn's dad's mom is turning 90 this month. Around Christmas time an idea was started to plan a birthday party for her and have everyone go out to California to help celebrate. Problem is we live in NY and it is expensive to get 6 people to California. Another problem was that Glenn was starting his medical school clerkships this summer and we had no idea what his schedule would be like. We made no plans to begin with but Glenn's parents really wanted us to go so we started thinking about it. Flying all of us was out of the question because it is so expensive. I looked into driving but it was going to cost $1200 just for gas let alone wear and tear/ things breaking on the van on the way and food and places to stay and the wear and tear on our bodies would have been intense. I was also a little worried about driving across the country with my kids by myself and SO SUPER SAD that Glenn wouldn't be able to have this adventure with us. It was decided that Steve and Debbie would come up and help me get the kids to CA and Glenn would fly. Finally we decided that we would take the train. It was going to cost a bit more than the gas cost of driving but I think that it will be much easier on our bodies and our van.

Family members (that I am not sure I can mention) offered to pay our way. The kids and my train ticket has been paid for and Glenn's plane ticket as well. We are so grateful!!

An added bonus of going by train is that we get to stop on the way to CA in Iowa to go to a family reunion for part of Glenn's mom's side of the family. This will definitely be a life experience for us with opportunities to meet many relatives. We are looking forward to it (though I am still super sad that Glenn can't come).

Thank you family members for making this possible!!

Thank You God most of all. You are so gracious and generous!

Free Citrus Tree

I love our generous God. He gives us so much more than we deserve! Even silly things. Glenn was talking about wanting to own an orange tree or having some kind of citrus grow in our house the other day. Today on our way home from finding out where his testing site for Saturday is we drove past a lemon (it might be a lime, we don't know!) tree on the curb just around the corner from our house! It has only 2 leaves but several little fruits growing on it. We took it home and put it into a pot that we'd planted a tomato in a couple of years ago. It could probably use a bigger pot but we own this pot and we aren't 100% sure that it is going to live. It is so fun that God gave us a trial tree for free to see if this is something we really want to own.

Thanks God for abundantly supplying all of our needs and SO often supplying so many of our little desires.

The Miracle Worker

Last night we went to Syracuse Stage for their production of The Miracle Worker. We were able to go for free because of an elective that Glenn is taking at school. From the time that I had heard that it was going to be done here this spring I have wanted to go but I wasn't sure that I wanted to spend the money for all of us to go. Through his elective Glenn has gone to a couple other (not so family friendly) shows this semester and often the students are told that they are allowed to bring one guest with them. He asked the teacher and a few of his classmates if he could have their extra tickets and we were all able to go. Yesterday we had the kids play 20 Questions to find out what we were doing last night. It wasn't Caleb's turn yet when he figured it out. He was so excited he was jumping up and down. We had taken a tour of Syracuse Stage in the fall and The Miracle Worker was the one show that he really wanted to go to. It was a great show. We all really enjoyed it. The kids were a little freaked out about the parts where Jimmie would talk to her from behind bars but other than that they really liked it.

Thanks God for free tickets to go to The Miracle Worker. Thank You for healthy kids that haven't had to go through the trials that Helen, Annie, and Jimmie did. Thank You also for the great example of perseverance through trials.

Pretty Plants

Wow, it has been a long time since I have blogged over here. I know that I have taken pictures to "blog later" but I haven't blogged. God has not ceased to provide for us but I guess I have ceased to give Him credit here. Here is a short and sweet one. Our upstairs neighbors moved to Utah for a new job and decided not to take their plants with them. They offered them to us and I jumped on the chance to have them. I had been wanting plants but didn't know what to get/ where to get them and it is so much easier if plants are just given to you because then those decisions are made for you. You take what you are given and say thank you then try to keep them alive :). The 4 big plants in the first picture and the huge one in our kitchen window were gifts from Bruce and Helen before they left and I am very excited to have them. I love having green living things in my home. Under the cup in the first picture is a sundew. It is a carnivorous plant and was given to me by my friend Dawn. It is really tiny now but I think that it likes the light bulb it is under so I hope it will grow and I am excited because I have never owned a carnivorous plant before!

Thank you God for providing plants to make me smile.

Women of Faith Conference

Yesterday afternoon I got an email from a friend telling me that a lady at the Bible study she goes to was giving away 2 tickets to the Women of Faith Conference in Rochester because of an illness in the family or something. She was wondering if I wanted to go with her. Her husband was encouraging her to go but she didn't want to go by herself. I asked Glenn and he said, "Go." I thought, 'OK, Glenn says I should go I'll email Kara and see what she says.' She was surprised by my answer. I think that she thought that it would definitely be a "no" because of Glenn's busy class schedule. She told me that she would call and see if the tickets were still available. I never heard back from her last night or this morning so I assumed that the tickets had already been given away. At noon I got an email from her telling me that we have the tickets for the conference that starts at 10 tomorrow morning 2 hours away.

I have never been to one of these things before for probably two reasons - 1. they are kind of expensive. 2. I don't think that anyone else should have to take care of my kids because that is my responsibility (I need to remember that they are OUR kids and that I am not the only person who is capable of taking care of them. They are a blessing and I should allow others to be blessed by being in contact with them.)

God took care of the expensive part - the lady gave away the tickets for free not wanting them to go to waste. Part of the expense part is not only the conference part but also the hotel expense. Thankfully I recently moved from Rochester and just had to ask to see whose house I could crash at. A friend who is going to be out of town for a wedding told me that we could sleep at her house - hurray - a place to sleep for free!

I was a little nervous about the kids part, mostly because Glenn has a class that he HAS to be at from 11-12:30 tomorrow. Kara's husband was willing to watch them but then Glenn found out he had another required class at 8am. One of his classmates recruited her husband to watch the kids for us. It is still in the works as to whether he is watching them here or at their place from 7:30-1.

So, I am getting picked up at 7:30 tomorrow morning to head to Rochester for a conference that I didn't even know was going on before yesterday afternoon. I am so thankful for this opportunity and excited about what God is going to do in my life as a result of this weekend.

Thanks God for the free tickets and how You've worked out the details and for how You are going to grow me through it (and already have!)

A Surprise Knock

Last Sunday Glenn and Caleb went to an introductory planning meeting for a First Lego League that is starting up here in Syracuse thanks to a grant that one of our neighbors up the street got from work. Caleb came home very excited about the idea of Lego robots and they got online to look up how much they were. They were pretty expensive so we tossed around the idea of saving up for it and maybe getting it as a group Christmas gift at some point down the road.

Caleb was checking the mail at the same time as our upstairs neighbor, Bruce, the other day and he saw that he got his Lego magazine and was thrilled and was showing it to Bruce and started telling him about the Lego Robotics group that he was going to be involved in. Bruce told Caleb that he had one of those Lego robots that Helen had given to him for Christmas one year that he never played with. Caleb asked if he could check it out sometime and Bruce said sure.

This afternoon while we were getting ready for lunch there was a knock on the door and it was Bruce and he had the robot that he decided to GIVE to Caleb, not just lend. We were very surprised and Caleb was very excited! We weren't even sure if they were going to let Caleb borrow the robot but GIVE it to us? Wow!

Thanks Bruce and Helen for your generous gift and thank You God for going above and beyond supplying our needs but furnishing our wants as well!

To find out more about Mindstorms and Lego Robotics you can check out the Lego website: mindstorms.lego.com Below are some pictures of Caleb with his new robot. I took one video of him with it but it didn't do what he thought he programmed it to do so I will try to remember to post a video of it later when it actually does what he wants it to.

Working on his robot

Making some adjustments

Lets see if it works!

Check out that happy smile :)

Free Food Weekend

I haven't posted in a long time. I am sure that there are things that need to be posted here but I am going to just post about this weekend which included some yummy free food.

Yesterday we went to a furniture store that was having a sale and offering free food. We were looking for a new couch and are interested in getting a new mattress as well. We didn't decide to buy anything yesterday but we did get free hot dogs and ice cream sandwiches.

Today Glenn went to a conference from something about family physicians and was fed at the Genessee Grand Hotel. While he was there I took the kids and their little friend whose mom works a couple of doors down to a community fair a few blocks from here. It was a lot of fun. Some of the free things there included soft serve ice cream cones with sprinkles, cotton candy, flea circus, hot dogs, hamburgers, lemonade, snow cones, bounce house obstacle course, caricatures, face painting, mini golf, velcro fishing and live music. Score! It was a lot of fun!

Then tonight our whole family was invited to the party for the family practice thing at Glenn's advisor's house (who was the president of the organization this year). It was catered and there was food everywhere - starting with cheeses, meats and crackers, then various salads and fruits, then roast beef, finger potatoes and veggies, then a delicious berry shortcake for dessert. We love free food and Caleb was super excited that he didn't have to do dishes :)

Thanks God for blessing us with free food this weekend!

Curb Dives

I am not even sure where to begin with this one. I haven't kept an annotated list of these lately (which I probably should have). This is the time of the year to find stuff (if you can get it before the scrappers do). We have been blessed by the curb this spring. I'll have to work on this more when the kids are awake to have them remind me but here are a few things that we have picked up the last week or so:

- a shoe rack (that fits perfectly in the little entryway of our new apartment that I had no idea what to put there!)

- a spiral bound atlas of the Syracuse area

- a tall 4 shelve metal shelving unit that we'll put in the basement to store stuff on

- a 4 shelf thing (I am not really sure what it is or what we'll use it for) that I got today from a girl that I saw that looked like she was frustrated and crying on the side of the road and I stopped to help her fit stuff into her car

- we have also found lots of good books (as if we didn't already have 25+ Baxter boxes packed full of books)

- a shipping crate that we're planning on painting and lining with contact paper to make a toy box for the kids

- an office chair (missing a wheel but Glenn thinks he can fix it)

- a stack of xbox games (most of which we'll be taking to EB Games to change into games that we actually want/ will play)

- a fun orange desk chair

- a pretty lamp

Baseball Gloves

On Tuesday night we went to the softball game of two girls who live on our street. As the kids and I sat and watched the game I started thinking about the fact that we only have 2 baseball gloves, mine and a left handed one that we had bought for Caleb last year. I realized that my kids didn't know how to play baseball or how to throw or catch with a glove and it is a skill that they should have. It's another one of those things that I am not sure when they start doing in public school but I just hadn't gotten around to doing with my kids. I told God about it briefly on our walk home that I would really like to get some gloves to play with the kids with and that it would be nice if there would be some at Salvation Army or a yard sale sometime soon.

On Wednesday mornings I have started going to a Bible study at Eastern Hills Bible Church because I really wanted to go to a Bible study and they have a program for home schooled kids during the Bible study which is so great. (A few of the ladies from our homeschool book club told me about it.) Anyway, there is a free table set up at the church during the Bible study for people to get rid of things they don't need and pick up things that would bless them. When I got there on Wednesday morning what was on the table but 2 little kid baseball gloves. I was stunned. Why was I surprised? I really don't know God is like that, he loves to bless me. As I stood there staring at them I told my friend that I had just asked God for baseball gloves the night before and I think that she thought it was weird but I am thankful. Yes, they won't fit the girls' hands for long but they will work for this summer. God, You are so gracious. Thank You for blessing us with baseball gloves that someday we'll be able to bless others with!